Lamp



G. MAHLCK April 13, 1943.

LAMP

Filed Oct. 19, 1940 R O T N E V 5 3 2 ATTORNE Patented Apr. 13, 1943 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE LAMP Gustave Mahlck, East Orange, N. J.

Application October 19, 1940, Serial No. 361,818

1 claim. (01. 116-14) This invention relates to lamps, especially elec-.

tric lamps, and more particularly to gas and vapor lamps.

A principal object of this invention is the production of a lamp in which the light emitting source is extended over a very considerable surface or space.

Other objects and advantages will appear as the description of the invention and the particular physical embodiments selected to illustrate the invention progresses and the novel features will be particularly pointed out in the appended claim.

In describing the invention in detail, and the V particular physical embodiment selected to illustrate the invention, reference will be had to the accompanying drawing and the several views thereon, in which like characters of reference designate like parts throughout the several views, and in which:

Figure 1 is a part cross-sectional and part side elevational view of a lamp of the automobile headlight type embodying applicant's inventio Fig. 2 is an end view of the device as shown by Fig. 1, viewed from the left hand side thereof as shown in Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a part sectional and part elevational view of a lamp of the street lighting type embodying applicants invention; Fig. 4 is an end view of the device as shown by Fig. 3 viewed from the lower-end thereof as viewed in Fig. 3.

In Fig. 1, a body I of material is shown formed into substantially a hollow paraboloid. It approximates the usual and well known form of automobile headlight and is intended for such purposes.

The material I is a transparent material and a dielectric material and although it may be made of any plastic having the characteristics stated, it is preferably made of glass. The body has a cavity, passage, or duct 2 formed therein. This passage starts adjacent one outer face of the body and extends in the form of a somewhat conical helix and terminates at 3 at what m t be called the apex of the paraboloid, the portion of the paraboloid adjacent to it being well described as the opening or mouth of the hollow paraboloid. The helical passage starting at 2 may be formed in any suitable or appropriate manner but it is believed that the most suitable and appropriate manner is that shown, described and claimed in my prior Patent No. 2,156,156, dated April 25, 1939.

The outside surface or the body I is silvered or formed as a mirror or reflector 4. This mirror or reflector 4 has its reflecting surface facing the body, that is. is on the inside. Any suitable or appropriate method may be employed to form the reflector 4. It may be produced, of silver,

directly upon the body I, or it may be in the form of a separate parabolic shell of brass with a silver lining preferably closely fitting the body I.

As is usual in automobile headlights, a cover or lens 5 of glass is provided and this cover may well be made integral with the body I.

The structure illustrated by Figure 1 may be considered as an element of a lamp, that is, as an article of manufacture which may be made and sold as a lamp structure insofar as it has been already described. In order to use it as a lamp, however, it is necessary to position an electrode 6 in one end of the passage made in the body and an electrode 1 in the other d of the body and to fill the passageway ughout with one of the rare gases such as neon or neon mixed with argon or helium or any other well known and efllcient combination of gases and metal vapors such as sodium and mercury may also be included as illuminants which will emit a light upon the passage of an electric discharge therethrough, it being understood that applicant contemplates availing himself of the most advanced knowledge and methods in utilizing the passage in the body I for the purpose of generating and emitting light.

The evacuation of the passage in the body I and the placing of electrodes at the ends thereof and filling with a suitable gas or other material may be done in any suitable or appropriate manner as, for instance, by the methods and constructions shown and described in my prior patent hereinbefore referred to.

A device constructed as described in connection with Fig. 1, when operated will act as a very efflcient illuminating device to serve in such a place as the front end of an automobile as a headlight. 5

It will be noted that the passage starting at 2 and terminating at 3 is relatively small in crosssection as compared with the body but is of relatively great length, in fact, is of greater length than the greatest dimension of the body I and is greater than the perimeter thereof and is many times the largest outside diameter of the body I.

It is to be understood that although Figure 1 illustrates a body which is parabolic in longitudinal cross-section and circular in transverse cross-section that applicant merely shows this sort of structure to illustrate the invention but does not mean to exclude by such showing other well known forms of reflecting concave or con,- vex mirrors as adaptable for use with a distributedlight source such as applicant's gas fllled passage.

The passage in the body I is so elongated that it is of very great length as compared to the body and in this particular case this great length is obtained by making thepassage helical although applicant does not intend to exclude other geometric figures or non-geometric figures which the passage in the body I may simulate.

The device as shown by Fig. 1 has reflector l on what may be called the rear side of the body I and it faces the body so that any light reaching the reflector will be reflected toward what might be called the front side the body I;

Although the body I has been shown as a hollow body. it is not meant by this to exclude constructions in which the body I may not be hollow.

In Figs. 3 and 4 applicant has illustrated a device embodying his invention which is constructed, in general, substantially in the same way as the lamp of Fig. 1 is constructed but as the device of Figure 3 is iliustrative'of a lamp such as a street lighting lamp the reflector or mirror 8 is positioned on the inside of the body 8 and the reflecting surface is on what might be called the outside of the reflector, that is, it faces the body 9 so that light reaching the reflector from the passage It will be reflected outwardly from all sides of the body lrather than only through the opening or mouth 01' the parabola.

In Fig. 3 the electrodes I I and I2 are connected from the inside oi the parabolic body rather than from the outside as shown in Fig. 1-

It is also to be understood that although a parabolic body I is illustrated in Fig. 3 that applicant does not intend to exclude thereby any other shaped body, as Fig. 3 Is merely illustrative.

Although I have particularly described one particular physical embodiment of my invention and explained the operation, construction and principle thereof, nevertheless, I desire to have it understood that the form selected is merely'illustrative but does not exhaust the possible physical embodiments of the idea of means underlying my invention.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent 01' the United States, is:

As a lamp structure. in combination: a hollow body of transparent dielectric material in the form of a parabola, a helical passage formed in the body beginning adjacent the opening or the parabolic body and terminating adjacent the apex. and a reflector formed on the outside surface of the parabolic body with the reflecting surface inward.

GUSTAVE MAHLCK. 

